By Keith Idec

LAS VEGAS – Badou Jack is tired of hearing announcers read scorecards he doesn’t feel reflect how well he fought.

With that in mind, the former WBC super middleweight champion knows he can eliminate that possibility by knocking out Nathan Cleverly on Saturday night. Jack will challenge Cleverly for the Welsh champion’s WBA world light heavyweight title in Jack’s first fight since moving up from 168 pounds to 175 on the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Conor McGregor undercard at T-Mobile Arena.

“I’m always thinking knockout,” Jack said following an open workout Wednesday at MGM Grand. “It’s easier said than done. I’ve been robbed my last two fights, so I know that I have to get this done inside of 12 rounds.”

The Las Vegas-based, Swedish-born Jack (21-1-2, 12 KOs) has settled for majority draws in each of his past two fights against England’s James DeGale (23-1-1, 14 KOs) and Canada’s Lucian Bute (32-5, 25 KOs). The DC Boxing and Wrestling Commission changed the result of the Bute bout to a disqualification win for Jack because Bute failed a test for performance-enhancing drugs.

The 33-year-old Jack won his previous two bouts by split decision over England’s George Groves (26-3, 19 KOs) and majority decision over American Anthony Dirrell (30-1-1, 24 KOs). Jack won the WBC super middleweight title from Dirrell in April 2015.

“I thought my last four fights were clear wins,” Jack said. “But none of them were unanimous. It happens in this sport, but hopefully this time I don’t have to worry about the scorecards.”

The 30-year-old Cleverly (30-3, 16 KOs) will fight for the first time since he stopped Germany’s Juergen Braehmer (48-3, 35 KOs) after the sixth round to win the WBA world light heavyweight championship October 1 in Neubrandenburg, Germany. Cleverly doesn’t expect scoring to be an issue in his first title defense.

“It’s going to be an intense fight,” Cleverly said. “There will be a lot of big exchanges of punches. Ultimately, my experience as an established light heavyweight will make the difference. I think I’ll win this fight by a wide decision.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.